What is Indian culture? Why Indians should be proud of it? Do Indians understand what western culture means? Answers to these questions may be sought in the light of the recent plane tragedy in Europe. In the past couple of days – since the Germanwings flight crashed into the French Alps killing all 144 on board – national leaders of Europe showed immense compassion, something usually missing in this part of the world. The plane being en route from Spain to Germany and crashed in France, premiers of all the three nations addressed joint press conferences. On day one, France’s Francois Hollande and Germany’s Angela Merkel were seen speaking to the nations on multiple occasions. The duo even took the pain of visiting the Alps near the spot. This is a great show of compassion, for people who lost their lives and whose near and dear ones were among the victims. Such scenes are not available in India or any Asian nations during similar human tragedy.
In less than two weeks ago, over 30 people were killed during a train accident in Uttar Pradesh. The incident even failed to become a lead story in some national newspapers. There is a blast every other day in Pakistan, killing dozens, and sometimes hundreds. How many times the country’s president visited such spots, to be on the side of the victims? Is it because these victims lesser human beings, than those killed in the plane crash? Or deaths don’t matter much since filling the “number” (of the dead) is very easy given the region is the planet’s leading people-making factory?
Top leaders of the whole of Europe and others paraded the streets of Paris to protest the recent terrorist attack on cartoon magazine ‘Charlie Hebdo’, killing 12 people. This is, perhaps, western culture. For most so-called Indian leaders, ‘culture’ means boys touching the feet of parents and girls not wearing short clothes, not going out at night and not speaking to boys. This is the same Indian culture where widows are made to feel every moment about their deceased husbands, by making them wear whites, debarring them from eating non-veg, let alone re-marriage. The irony is that the same society, which proclaims to have so much respect for the dead, fails to show its compassion during human tragedy. If life is valued less, it’s going to be lost more as happening in the region. To protect human lives, they have to be valued more. It will transform lives, reduce human casualties and also control population by means of increased awareness.

Dropping Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma in early overs could have proved costly for Australia had they lost the ICC World Cup semi-final match against India at Sydney. But, Australia did not have to repent those two missed chances. After Dhawan’s dismissal, India never looked to be reaching anywhere near the target, 329. Dhawan’s 45 off 58 gave the initial momentum for the team to make the ‘impossible’ happen. No team batting second has made it so far in any WC semi-final. The destiny was already on Australia’s side. In fact, the toss itself was the big decider of the match. Dhoni’s men would have had at least 20 per cent more chances had the toss been in the ‘Captain Cool’s favour, as it mostly does.

As if it had been a bad omen – at least on two occasions – Indian fans rekindled their hope for a victory, only to be dashed in the next delivery! Rohit Sharma, after struggling to take the grip against tight spells of Aussie speedstars, recovered by hitting a Mitchel Johnson delivery over the ropes. The Indian fans thought it might be Rohit’s day today. Nay’ it was Mitchel’s, instead. The Delhi lad saw his stumps going haywire in the next delivery! Similarly, Suresh Raina looked settled in the 23rd over when he punished James Faulkner by clearing the fence. Faulkner made sure Raina’s back to the pavilion in the next ball! Behind the stumps, Brad Haddin did not any mistake that Raina did by a none-can-understand shot.

Now that the Men in Blue are out of the race, the Cup is going away from India, to another continent. This is for the first time that both the finalists are from Australia/Oceania continent. In fact, New Zealand had never reached the semi-final stage so far. Although the Australia are a much stronger side when it comes to global cricket, the two neighbours are strong arch rivals. New Zealand had already shown its determination for the Cup by not losing any single match, even against Australia. If Martin Guptil and Brandon Mccullum can uphold the reputation they earned this WC, Aussies are in for a big surprise. Else, it will be the fifth Cup for the latter.

In every step, there is a middleman in India. Try to meet a top government official, the peon or clerk puts up a ‘toll gate’. Without paying the ‘tax’ to him, you cannot get the access. This cannot be mistaken with brokerage, which is a genuine transaction. A genuine broker always offers a service and gets his dues. The broker makes a deal between a buyer and a seller, who do not know each other before. But the ‘service’ offered by middleman can be done away with. There will be no impact on the service as a whole. In fact, the service will change for the better.

Illiteracy and red tape have caused mushrooming of middleman. While illiterate people have no option but to take somebody’s help in preparing the papers, the educated ones fear the red tape. Both end up taking resort to middleman. The middleman menace has recently taken toll on beneficiaries of Kisan Credit Card (KCC) in Meghalaya. A large section of people from Garo Hills region comprising five districts have reportedly complained that money was withdrawn from their accounts without their knowledge. Some also complained that the middleman charged Rs 2,000 for ‘processing’ loans of Rs 20,000 and above. They allege that the middleman was ‘authorised’ by the bank itself. There is no recognised system of middleman in obtaining bank loans. He was accused of keeping the passbooks of beneficiaries and withdrawing money by forging their signatures. He, in reply, contends that he’s a ‘social worker’ and just helped the illiterate villagers in availing the loans.

Although no police complaint has been lodged against the person so far, the existence of such middlemen exploiting simple villagers is a harsh reality. Are nationalised banks not responsible for preparing the loan papers of genuine beneficiaries? They must have dedicated persons for helping beneficiaries with the loan papers. KCC loans are meant for farmers, who are mostly either illiterate or semi literate. They need authorised expert hand for such documentations. If the bank cannot afford to have the manpower to deal with huge number of applicants, it should formally appoint such middleman deduct his fees from the loan amount. It is also the bank’s responsibility to scan the so-called social workers and ensure that the loans reach the right hands.

Divorce is still an irrelevant term in Meghalaya. But number of single mothers in the state is one of the highest in the country. Most of them do not know what ‘divorce’ is. They are just abandoned by their husbands or rather their male partners. It’s been a traditional practice for man just moving into the female partner’s house and to have children. With changing times, the practice is in conflict with basic rights of the female folk. While ‘abandonment’ by husband is not a new phenomenon, the impact on the wife is far more serious in present day context. In the absence of any law to make marriage registration compulsory, the woman is left with no legal safeguard. Worse, if she has children. Men, on the other hand, are also victims of another traditional practice, matrilineal system of inheritance. It also does not hold any man liable for providing financial compensation to his former ‘wife’ and children. While some take advantage of the norm and others are in no position to provide compensation due to lack of direct control over wealth. In both cases, women are at the receiving end. The children suffer too.

The other day an Opposition leader in the assembly wondered if a social aid scheme for single mothers will encourage more divorces in the state. The proposition is weird and holds no water. The problem at hand is suffering of the single mothers. They need help and protection. It was the right move by the government to cover single mothers also under the Chief Minister’s Social Assistance Scheme. Earlier, the scheme covered widows, physically challenged, and infirm people.

The United Democratic Party (UDP) legislator Jemino Mawthoh while raising doubt over inclusion of single mothers also admitted that a lot of single mothers of 17-18 years come to him seeking financial assistance. In fact, most MLAs have to dole huge sums to such single mothers to keep their vote base intact. According to rights activist Michael Syiem, this is the prime factor of the government still sitting on the Marriage Registration Act, which was passed in the assembly in 2012. “They do not want to lose grip over the large section of voters (single mothers and their families),” says Syiem. His words hold logic, unlike the UDP legislator. Single mothers, who are victims of absence of a marriage Act, need proper government assistance and not alms from MLAs.

The ban on ‘India’s Daughter’ and lynching of a ‘rapist’ in Dimapur has led to intense debates over status of women in India. But what these debates are covering is the issue of rape that is legally recognised as ‘rape’. Many of us are not aware that one kind of rape is not covered under this definition. In fact, most people, especially our ‘honoured’ politicians, do not want to accept this particular act as rape although there is no physical difference between the two acts. The other rape is done by husbands on their wives, in millions. Marital rape, already recognised as an offence in around 100 countries, has no definition as yet in this country. ‘An act of sex with married wife, if not minor, is not an offence’. This is what the law says about an act of sex – forced or consensual – between husband and wife, effectively keeping an ugly silence on the common menace.
“…… Marriage is for women the commonest mode of livelihood and the total amount of undesired sex endured by women is probably greater in marriage than in prostitution…..” This saying of British philosopher Bertrand Russell was used by a lower court judge while denying bail to a person accused of sexually harassing his eight-month old young wife. The judge indirectly slammed the country’s lawmakers for their hypocrisy in claiming highest form of dignity for Indian women on one hand and not recognising marital rape on the other. Although most of India’s neighbours in South-East Asia including China are on its side, a small nation like Bhutan has gone ahead to join the matured world. Bhutan adopted the law in 2004. The movement against marital rape started in the sixties among east European countries and later spread to west Europe. In Britain, marital rape was made an offence as late as 1991.
According to statistics, however, the rate of rapes per lakh people in India is far less compared to other major nations. The national figure of 2000 is 1.8 while that of South Africa is highest at 132.8, England 28.8, US 27.3 and Russia 3.4 per lakh population. Marital rape being a recognised offence, the figure is higher in the other countries. Besides, women in these advanced countries are far less worried about approaching judiciary or police for justice regarding sexual offence. High rate of divorce, which happens on trivial issues in the West, is also another factor of the bigger number of ‘rapes’ in these countries. India can, under no circumstances, boast about its small figure vis-à-vis other nations.

The ‘victim’ reportedly had consensual sex with the lynched rape accused.

From day 1, the Dimapur incident showed signs of a ‘story behind the story’. The other story has come out. It was apparently a matter of consensual sex, between the lynched ‘rapist’ Syed Arif Khan and the ‘victim’, according the Union home ministry while quoting a Nagaland government report. The report was based on confessions given by Syed to Dimapur police that he had sex twice with the ‘victim’ girl twice and he paid Rs 5,000 for it. Besides, she turns out to be the cousin sister of the wife of Syed. Although Dimapur police distanced itself from the alleged state government report, the reported seizure of footage of the duo in a hotel raises a question mark on the very allegation. Syed’s claim that the girl sought extra money from him which he refused has also been taken into consideration. There are also reports that the girl’s medical report did not support her allegation either. However, police still considered it a rape probe. Is there another story behind the ‘story behind the story’? There may be one or many. Questions over leaders of the mob still remain unanswered. Police say they are all absconding. Can they be from militant groups eyeing benefits from a communal tension? A lot of non-tribal traders and workers have left the state’s commercial hub after the incident. This has been the trend whenever there is communal violence in any of the north-eastern state. This had happened during ULFA heydays in Assam, in Meghalaya and currently happening in Manipur now. Are political groups behind too? Groups against the current state leadership might orchestrate this to show the utter failure of the state machinery. Dragging a UTP out of the jail and lynching him naked on the street is something rarely seen in any part of India. This is not an incident of militants or dacoits attacking the jail to free their own cadres. The incident was tried to be painted as mob justice towards a rapist. There is little doubt that Syed too had his share of blame. He remained an accused even if he had had “paid” sex with the Naga girl, because prostitution is illegal in India. Dimapur, already a den of all kinds of criminals, militant groups and arms smugglers, is also notorious for its “sex tourism”. The historic town, once capital of the Kachari kingdom, also witnessed a major shift in its demographic pattern over the years. The particular incident is just an outburst of the severe imbalance created by all kinds of forces in the once sleepy town.

The other day India took strong objection to US President Barack Obama’s comment about ‘religious intolerance’ in the country. It seems, Obama was not wrong! Even the government reflected the character, by banning a documentary film ‘India’s Daughter’. If the government cannot tolerate freedom of speech, can the country expect anything better than Obama’s comment? The issue dealt by the documentary is peculiar mindset of Indian people towards women. The issue that worried government is as to how did the film director get the permission to shoot inside Tihar jail? For government, reading the minds of rape convicts, who share equal views with millions of other Indians, is less important than to uphold the rules and ‘dignity’ of women!

One particular TV channel has been very much worried about ‘dishonour’ to Nirbhaya to be caused by the documentary. The channel is not NDTV, which had got the telecast right to air the film on March 8 along with the BBC, before the government banned it. It was but obviously clear that race for TRP prompted the vociferous editor of the rival channel to shout on top of his voice, as he always does, to blow up the issue. Many, ‘worried’ about dignity of Indian women and violation of rules in the process of making the documentary, joined the channel. They are not willing to hear even Nirbhaya’s parents, who after watching the documentary, had no objection. The parents even said the ban would bring no good to their case. They just want capital punishment to killers of their daughter.

Renowned fiction writer Chetan Bhagat said about the film – forget about ban, it’s a must watch! Any person who believes in freedom of speech would not agree any less. For the first time, any film has tried to treat a subject considered as foregone conclusion earlier. The thinking had been that a rapist is a very bad person, so he does the act, and should be given harshest punishment. Although it is a different issue that most rapists go scot-free, thanks to callous policing and legal system, none has even felt the need to read the minds of such criminals. The film’s director Leslee Udwin rightly pointed the need for understanding what the criminals feel about the crime, before going for solutions. There is need for public awareness about their thinking so that corrective measures can be adopted.